On a Saturday afternoon in late August, Mary McSpadden invited her neighbors out to the lawn at Cross Creek, and the club brought the game to them: a full-size court, hoops, mallets and balls, set up where a yard had been that morning.
A crowd of fifty-plus turned out in their summer whites, first-timers and old hands alike. Mountain Brook Mayor Graham Smith came out for it too. Lessons turned into matches, matches filled the afternoon, and by the end of it there was already talk of a Cross Creek Croquet Club.
It was the first outing for the club’s pop-up program: we bring everything, we set up, we teach, we host.
Every spring the Nick’s Kids Foundation holds its annual fundraiser in Birmingham. While Coach Saban’s tournament plays out on the golf course, Terry Saban gathers her own group for lunch at the Hot & Hot Fish Club — and in 2025, the afternoon that followed belonged to croquet.
Eddie Greenhalgh and Todd Russell led the instruction at Shook Hill, back when the club was still playing under the Mountain Brook name. Most of the group had never held a mallet. By the end of it they were running hoops and discovering what everyone eventually discovers about golf croquet: it is a great deal more competitive than it looks.
Since it began, Nick’s Kids has raised more than $15 million for education across Alabama.
